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Borates & TA

I understand that borates are a pH buffer - so that, with borates in the pool, it takes significantly more acid to reduce the pH by the same amount. My question: what about TA change, with and without borate? Example: suppose I have no borates in the pool, and it takes 1 Unit of MA to reduce the pH from 7.5 to 7.2, and the result of that acid is a reduction in TA = X. Now take the same pool with borates - assume it takes 1.3 Unit of MA to produce the same pH reduction, 7.5-7.2. Is the TA reduced by 1.3X (proportional to amount of acid) or by 1X (proportional to pH change)?

Re: Borates & TA

I'm sure one of our chemists will get to this with a real answer. Just from general observation though, and likely wrong lol, I've seen TA reductions to about the same degree as before using borates. Other than it takes more MA to drive the PH itself down, but the TA change "seems" about the same. That was last year for me though, with low TA in my fill water and pool guy long since fired I now have to raise it a fraction now and then to even keep it in the 50-60 range.

Re: Borates & TA

interesting topic indeed, since I am trying to add borates to my pool (but trying to stabilize TA and pH first). I used poolmath to see what my difference was going to be driving the pH down from 7.6 to 7 and it was roughly double with 50ppm borates in the water. However, it's no worse than having 250ppm TA like I started out with, so I'll be fine adding 2 quarts when necessary.